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2 Sheets Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

0. B. REARDON. ELECTRIC VALVE CONTROLLER.

Patented Apr. 21,1891

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'UNrTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. REARDON, OF FRANKLIN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- l-lALF TO JOHN E. GILL, OF SAME PLACE.

ELECTRIC VALVE-CONTROLLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 450,872, dated April 21, 1891.

Application fiI d June 4,1888. Renewed March 20, 1891. Serial No. 385,737. (No model.)

To GLZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES E. REAnnoN, of Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Application of Electricity to the Operation of Hydraulic Hose and Valves, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus by which the fireman handling the hose-nozzle, usually known as the pipeman, can through the medium of electricity most speedily control the flow of water through the hose by directly operating the hydrant-valve.-

In the drawings my invention is shown as applied to the working of a hydrant-valve, the said hydrant being constructed in a novel manner to adapt it to be operated by an electric current passed through wires in the hose.

My invention consists in the parts and combinations hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view, partly in section, of my improved apparatus. Fig. 2 is a section at right angles to the plane of Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and t are detail views on a larger scale, showing the wires embedded in the hose and the manner of connecting them across the hose-couplings.

2, Fig. 1, is the main from which water is taken through the valve 3 to the hydrant 4. A casing 5 surrounds the hydrant and contains the apparatus for operating the valve 3. As will be seen by reference to Fig. 2, the 'valve 3 has a sliding gate 6,from which a rod 7 extends through the stuffing-box 8 to the tilting lever 9. Said lever is pivoted at 10 to a fixed support, in this case the pipe of the hydrant 4. Upon one end of lever 9 is a solid weight 11 and at the other a hollow weight 12. The hollow weight 12 has a valve 13 in its bottom and an opening 1A at its top. A pipe 15 opens into the hydrant, its outer end being provided with an inwardly-opening valve 16, and is so located as to register with the opening 14 of the weight 12 when the latter is raised, the valve 16 being at the same time opened by the projection 17, carried by the weight 12. Both weights 11 and 12 have projections 1S and 19, with which the catches 20 and 21 engage when their respective weights are uppermost. The catches 20 and 21 are held normally in position to engage the projections 18 and 19 by gravity or by springs 22 and 23. In proximity to their ends are located two electro-maguets 2i and 25, the coil-wires of which are connected to one pole of the batteries 26, placed within the casing 5. Both wires from the batteries are then led to the hose-connection 27 of the hydrant and there connected to the wires in the hose. The wires are led across the hose-couplings by a latch 28, whose structure is shown in Figs. 3 and t. As shown in the said figures, the latch will be seento consist of a body of rubber soft enough to have a degree of flexibility (or it may consist of other suitable insulating material) protected by a covering of kerite or other material able to resist wear, said rubber having conductingwires embedded therein. One end of the latch is hinged to one of the hose ends by the pin 30, which is covered by the hard-rubber quill 31. Metallic rings 32 32 surround the quill 31, and are thus insulated from each other and the pin 30. The rings are in metallic contact with the wires 29, or the rings maybe formed by bending the ends of the Wires 29 around the quill 31 to form a yielding coil. In the latter case the hose-wires 35 will be continuous with the wires 29. If rings 32 are used, the ends of the hoseovires will terminate in springs 40, which bear against the rings.

It is to be understood that the hose-wires are insulated, except at their ends where they make contact with the latch. The wires 29 of the latch farthest from the hinge terminate in buttons 36 on the inner face of the latch. Said buttons are kept in contact with the hose-wires 35 by an eccentric clamp 37 and lug 38.

Upon the hose nozzle or elsewhere within reach of the pipeman the wires are so arranged in any well-known way that the pipeman can make or break the circuit at will.

The operation is as follows: The parts being in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in full lines, the pipeman desiring to turn on the water closes the electric circuit for a few seconds only, thereby causing the electro-magnets 24: and 25 to attract their armatures. The catch 20 thereupon releases the weight 11, which, being solid, overbalances the hollow weight 12. The valve 6 is thereby opened, turning the water onto the hose, and the weights and lever assume the position shown in dotted and, overbalancing the weight 11, will close.

the valve 6. The parts will again assume the positions shown in full linesfand the valve 13 being thereby opened will discharge the water from the weight 12 and leave the apparatus ready to again open the valve 6 upon the closure of the circuit, as before.

Signals of'any ordinary construction can be operated'by the electric circuit through the hose either separately or in conjunction with the hydrantj ust described, and orders can be thus transmitted to the engineer of the fireengine, if one be used.

In place of the batteries 26, dynamos may furnish therequisite current, which dynamos may be either those regularly in use for electrio lighting or special ones solely for that purpose. In the latter case they'may be carried by the steam fire-engine.

I claim 1. The combination, with a hydraulic valve, of a tilting lever, as 9, connected thereto, having a solid and a hollow weight at its ends, as 11 and 12, catches, as 20 and 21, electromagnets, as 24 and 25, a valve, as 15, discharg ing into the hollow weight when raised, and a valve, as 13, emptying the hollow weight when lowered, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with'a hydraulic valve, of a tilting lever, as 9, connected thereto, having a solid and a hollow weight at its ends, as 11 and 12, catches, as 20 and 21, electromagnets, as 24 and 25, the circuit-wires of which extend through'a hose and are operated by a switch at the nozzle, a valve, as 16, discharging into the hollow Weight when raised, and a valve, as 13, emptying the hollow weight when lowered, substantially as described.

CHAS. l3. REARDON.

Witnesses:

O. R. GALBRATH, A. G. GALBRATH. 

